Municipal Demarcation Board

Wat behels die presiese funksie van die “MDB” en hoe word munisipale grense bepaal asook vlak 3 regerings?   Soos reeds opgemerk, word die aanstellings op die Raad wat grense bepaal op grondvlakregering, deur die president van die land gedoen.  Daar is heelwat teenstrydighede, soos dienslewering wanneer een volksgroep ‘n meerderheid vorm in ‘n wyk en dienste soms slegs na sekeres gekanaliseer word.

Appointment of members at Municipal Demarcation Board

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Die grense bepaal aan die einde, metro rade en gewone stadsrade, asook hoeveelheid raadslede vir munisipaliteite.   Munisipaliteite word ook opgedeel in vlakke van Stads of Metrorade.  Dit bepaal weer die salarisse en vergoedingspakkette vir Raadslede sowel amptenary.

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MISSION OF THE MDB

The MDB is South Africa’s municipal demarcation authority, whose mission is to deepend democracy and to facilitate the socio-economic transformation of the country for the benefit of its citizens by:

• Enabling and facilitating a system of developmental local government, through the determination of municipal and ward boundaries that enhances the quality of life of communities, overall;
• Providing advisory services, in municipal boundaires matters, to state entities and other stakeholders;
• Being a spatial knowledge hub on all municipal and ward boundary matters.

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The Board’s mandate derives from:

The Constitution Of The Republic Of South Africa, 1996 (Act No 108 Of 1996).
The Board is mandated in terms of section 155(3)(b) to determine municipal Boundaries independently.
Local Government: Municipal Demarcation Act, 1998 (Act No 27 Of 1998)

Section 3 provides that the Board is a juristic person, is independent and must be impartial and must perform its function without fear, favour or prejudice.

Section 4 provides that the Board must determine Municipal boundaries in accordance with this Act and other appropriate legislation enacted in terms of Chapter 7 of the Constitution, and must render an advisory service in respect of matters provided for in this act and other appropriate legislation.

Local Government: Municipal Structures Act, 1998 (Act 117 Of 1998)

Delimit wards in compliance with Schedule 1 to the Act.

In terms of section 85 the Board must consider the capacity of District and Local municipalities to perform their function and to exercise their powers, and provide advice to MEC’s responsible for Local Government.

Section 6 empowers the Board to declare District Management Areas.

Cabinet Resolutions

In 1998 Cabinet resolved that departmental service delivery boundaries must be aligned to constitutional boundaries (National, Provincial and Local) and should be finalised by departments in consultation with the Municipal Demarcation Board.

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RAMAPHOSA

The Municipal Demarcation Board (MDB) is established by the Local Government: Municipal Demarcation Act 1998 to determine municipal Boundaries independently and is accountable to Parliament (Local Government: Municipal Demarcation Act 1998, 2, 39).

The MDB is composed of between seven and fifteen members (as determined by the Minister of Local Government) appointed by the president from a list of candidates supplied by an independent selection panel of judges, two experts one appointee of the Gender Commission and the Chairperson of the Select Committee of the National Council of Provinces responsible for local government matters (Local Government: Municipal Demarcation Act 1998, 5, 8).

The MDB must be broadly representative of the South African society, reflect regional diversity and collectively represent a pool of knowledge relevant to municipal demarcation (Municipal Demarcation Act 1998, 5(3)).

The President appoints the Chair and Deputy Chair from amongst the MDB members (Municipal Demarcation Act 1998, 5(10)).

Members of the MDB may be removed from office for misconduct, incapacity or incompetence by the President based on a finding to that effect by an investigating tribunal appointed by the President (Municipal Demarcation Act 1998, 5(13)).

https://www.eisa.org.za/wep/soumdb.htm

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TYPES OF BOUNDARY DETERMINATIONS

The Board undertakes three broad types of municipal outer boundary determinations where the criteria are applied differentially and the data requirement and motivation also vary.

Type A – Technical and minor boundary re-determinations: This re-determination entails a small scale boundary adjustment and/or alignment with a minor impact on the geographic area, and with a negligible or no impact on the number of voters, and on the capacity of the affected municipalities. The outcome of this redetermination is the correction and/or alignment of a municipal boundary with physical or natural features such as roads, rivers, and mountains; or cadastral boundaries (parent farm boundaries) or a combination of the two. Alignment to cadastre may be necessary where, for purposes of property valuations and rates, a property has to be under the jurisdiction of one municipality rather than being split between two or more municipal areas.

Type B – Consolidation and Annexations: This is a medium scale boundary re-determination that may impact on a sizable geographic area, and number of voters in one or all the municipalities affected. This type of determination may impact on ward arrangements but will not, or will not materially, impact on the capacities of the affected municipalities to deliver services. The outcome of this type of boundary adjustment is the correction of boundary anomalies that affect service delivery, and to promote integrated communities and economies.

Type C – Amalgamation and Categorisation: This type of re-determination entails a major and large scale municipal boundary re-determination which will have a significant impact on the geographic areas, the number of voters, and the capacities of the affected municipalities. The outcome of this type of re-determination includes the merging of adjacent municipalities; the splitting of municipal areas to create municipal areas which will result in that the responsible MEC will need to disestablish an existing municipality or municipalities, and establish a new municipality or municipalities. Also included in this type is the categorisation of metropolitan municipalities with or without boundary changes. This type of request requires extensive motivation and a significant amount of supporting evidence. Where a request is submitted for the categorisation of a municipality into a metropolitan municipality, such a request must satisfy the criteria outlined in Section 2 of the Local Government: Municipal Structures Act, 1998, in addition to the criteria set out in section 24 and 25 of the Local Government: Municipal Demarcation Act, 1998. Attention is also drawn to the fact that the MDB may determine that an area must have a category A (metropolitan) municipality, only after consultation with the National Minister responsible for local government, the MEC for local government in the provinces concerned, and SALGA.

http://www.demarcation.org.za/site/types-of-boundary-redeterminations/

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WARD DELIMITATIONS

The MDB delimit wards to all municipalities that qualify to have wards in order to deepen local democracy and promote local governance.

After having finalised the boundaries of the municipalities, preparations for elections commence. The MDB plays a key role in this process. The electoral system provides for the election of ward councillors, and it is the responsibility of the MDB to delimit such wards within which ward councillors can be elected. Different stakeholders play a role in the ward delimitation process. Firstly the IEC divides the national voters roll into municipal segments The number of registered voters is then used by national Minister responsible for local government, to determine a formula for the number of councillors for each municipality. This is done in terms of section 20(3) of the Structures Act, 1998. The MECs responsible for local government in the 9 provinces use this formula to determine the number of councillors for each municipality in terms of section 18 of the Structures Act, 1998. Under certain conditions the MECs may deviate from the formula. The Minister’s determination is published in the Government Gazette, while section 18 notices are published in the Provincial Gazette.

Once number of councillors is published, this information is used by the MDB to calculate the number of wards by dividing the number of councillors for the municipality by two (2). A norm for the number of registered voters per ward is then calculated by dividing the number of registered voters in the municipality by the number of ward councillors. The legislation allows for a deviation of 15% above or below the norm. These numbers are then used during the spatial configuration of ward boundaries to ensure that each ward in a municipality has more or less the same number of registered voters, as required by Schedule 1 to the Structures Act, 1998.

Whilst the MDB endeavours to retain stable ward boundaries as far as possible, it is in general not possible due to an increase or decrease in the number of registered voters which impacts on the number of councillors, and thus on the number of wards.

As in the case of municipal boundaries, the MDB follows a lengthy consultative process before final ward boundaries are finalised in compliance with the criteria provided for in Schedule 1 of the Structures Act, 1998. The MDB provides draft sets of ward maps to stakeholders and communities, and convenes meetings with them with a view to reach agreement on the ward boundaries before the commencement of the legal process.

The MDB delimited the following number of wards for the local elections held in 2000, 2006 and 2011:

Province	Wards 2000	Wards 2006	Wards 2011
Eastern Cape	601	636	715
Free State	291	300	317
Gauteng	446	423	508
KwaZulu-Natal	748	771	828
Limpopo	445	513	543
Mpumalanga	393	365	402
North West	338	365	383
Northern Cape	162	174	194
Western Cape	330	348	387
Total	3754	3895	4277

The ward delimitation process for the 2016 local elections will commence in 2014, immediately after the Minister has published the formula, and the MECs have determined the number of councillors.

Gauteng

Click to access MDB-WARD-DELIMITATION-BOOKLET.pdf

http://www.demarcation.org.za